The present invention relates to a supporting head particularly for machining plates of glass, marble or the like of any size.
The machining of the edges of glass plates is currently performed on machines which comprise at least one supporting head wich retains the glass plate to be machined in position by means of suckers or the like.
Known heads currently have relatively large dimensions, with a significant circumferential bulk which prevents continuous machining along the entire perimeter of small-size glass plates such as for example those having a diameter of a few centimeters, since there would be interference between the supporting head of the plate and the tool-holder head which must machine the plate.
For these reasons, currently, small-size glass plates necessarily have to be machined along their edges with purely manual processes, also because the provision of a supporting head specifically for supporting small-size plates would lead to a scarcely versatile machine incapable of being used for larger-size plates, as presently occurs.
To obviate these disadvantages, a supporting head for glass plates has been provided which has a main head with a main shaft, which is caused to rotate about its own axis by a motor, and an auxiliary head operatively connected to the main head.
The auxiliary head has an auxiliary shaft, caused to rotate by means of gears by the main shaft and having an axis parallel thereto and spaced therefrom.
Supporting plates for the glass plate to be machined are also associable with the main and auxiliary heads.
The above solution, though it obviates the disadvantages of the initially mentioned heads, has the problem of requiring, whenever necessary, the removal of the supporting plate of the main head to allow the positioning of a supporting plate having adequate dimensions on the auxiliary head and vice versa, since it is not possible to keep, due to bulk and functional reasons, the two supporting plates mounted respectively on both the main and the auxiliary head.